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The FW de Klerk Foundation notes the recent announcement by Basic Education Minister, Siviwe Gwarube, confirming that only 96% of the school pit toilets were eradicated as of 31 March 2025. This was the deadline for 100% eradication of all school pit toilets.

“The Foundation acknowledges that Minister Gwarube and her department made significant strides in addressing this long-standing violation of learners’ constitutional rights (including, but not limited to, the right to dignity and the right to life). The achievement of removing unsafe sanitation facilities from most affected schools is no small feat. However, while 96% is indeed progress worth recognising, it is not a completion of the task. The remaining 4% still exposes learners to unsafe, undignified and unconstitutional conditions. These are not mere statistics, but real schools with real children whose right to life, dignity, to be protected from degradation and to an environment that is not harmful to their well-being continue to be undermined,” states Daniela Ellerbeck, an attorney and the FW de Klerk Foundation’s Constitutional Rights Programmes Manager.

“As highlighted in the Foundation’s open letter to the Department earlier this year, the eradication of pit toilets is not simply a policy issue, but it is a matter of human rights and lives” says Shanees Nkandu, an intern at the Foundation. “The deaths of learners in unsafe sanitation facilities in previous years have underscored the tragic and urgent nature of this issue,” she adds.

The progress made should be seen as a step forward, not the finish line. The Foundation encourages the Minister and her department to sustain this momentum, finish the task and ensure that no learner is left behind in accessing safe and dignified sanitation.

Issued by FW de Klerk Foundation